US surgical staffing question

[joy_of_cooking]

Suppose you're an orthopedic surgeon at a big hospital. One of your colleagues goes on (planned) leave. How does that affect you?

For plot purposes, it'd be convenient if his colleagues started working longer hours and coming home worn out, such that there was an opportunity for a loving spouse to step up with some extra housework, cuddles, etc. Maybe if I say,

1. You straightforwardly get scheduled for more work, because hospital admin are greedy MBAs who hate to cancel or reschedule procedures ("think of the patients!")
2. The work is harder for you than it was for him. You don't do these procedures as much, so you put in extra time off the clock to review the technique, and then when you're in the theatre everything is slower and more stressful.
3. Miscellaneous balls get dropped (e.g., someone remembers the night before who used to put together the agenda for M&Ms) and people are left scrambling at the last minute despite everyone's best efforts

Plausible?

I could make the leave unplanned if that's necessary. E.g., maybe hospitals are actually really careful about overworking their surgeons, for fear of mistakes and litigation? (Everything I know about nursing says that's not how it works though...)

 

[NotWise]

I think the right answer is going to vary with the situation -- ER or Urgent Care vs private practice. You might be thinking more of the ER or Urgent Care case. Don't know about #2. If the procedure isn't an emergency, then the surgery would probably be rescheduled. For #3, staffing is a huge problem, and shit happens.

Our first pediatrician resigned from her private practice because, as junior member, she was expected to cover for all of the senior members. I think that's a common requirement for junior partners, but in her case the senior partners were abusive.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Not a surgical expert, but as a long-time reader of at some minor intelligence, I personally find all of those scenarios credible. My point is that credible is all you need. Unless you're writing this for the AMA Journal literature section so long as it seems plausible enough to build the story on, then it's good.

Good luck.

 

[Britva415]

Realistically, patients definitely can get bounced/rescheduled unless it's an ER trauma we're talking about.

I'm not saying the other scenarios can't/don't happen, just that this one is not negligible.

But, for the purposes of your story, you're free to either hang a lampshade on it, or, ignore it completely without any mention at all.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Our first pediatrician resigned from her private practice because, as junior member, she was expected to cover for all of the senior members. I think that's a common requirement for junior partners, but in her case the senior partners were abusive.

Unfortunately common across medicine, IME; there are some very dysfunctional "I had to endure this shit so now I'm inflicting it on the next generation" attitudes out there.

Not everybody, by any means, but way too many.

 

[AllenWoody]

Not a surgical expert, but as a long-time reader of at some minor intelligence, I personally find all of those scenarios credible. My point is that credible is all you need. Unless you're writing this for the AMA Journal literature section so long as it seems plausible enough to build the story on, then it's good.

Good luck.

Exactly! It sounds credible to me, and I suspect so as well to the other 99.99 percent of readers who aren't ER doctors. Write with confidence, get to the point, and share your story.